The aim of the study was to identify the contextual factors and socialization experiences most salient to the identity development of African American girls. Seventeen African American young women participated in dyadic focus groups. Themes that emerged included exposure to stereotypes, negative classroom environments, and parental and peer…

Ailing academic performances of Black male student athletes have been an impetus for a search of recourse by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Amid the volume of these academic underperformances, particularly in revenue-generating sports, there are Black male student athletes who achieve a level of success in the classroom that rivals…

Prosocial involvement is conceptualized as support for or engaging in behaviors that contribute to or benefit African American communities. The current study examines the relationship between prosocial involvement and race-related factors among 303 African American college students. Using two underlying dimensions of prosocial involvement,…

This study examined the role of color-blind racial ideology among a sample of 152 African American undergraduate students in relation to race-related stress. We hypothesized that those who endorsed relatively higher color-blind racial attitudes would experience greater race-related stress because experiences with racism would be interpreted as…

Research on eating disorders has shown that European American women suffer from eating disorders and body image dissatisfaction more than African American women. However, recent meta-analyses suggest these differences may be decreasing and that some African American women may be particularly susceptible to body dissatisfaction and eating disorder…

This study examined racial and athletic identity among African American football players at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and predominantly White institutions (PWIs). Negotiating the dualism of racial and athletic identities can be problematic because both roles are subject to prejudice and discrimination, particularly for…

Ethnic identity, the extent to which one defines one's self as a member of a particular ethnic group, has been found to be an important predictor of African American adolescents' psychological and behavioral well-being. This study experimentally examined the effects of a school-based emancipatory intervention on the ethnic identity of African…

This article examines the development of African American adolescents' identity using a relational developmental systems theory framework, which led to the expectation that identity development is linked to both the reduction of risk behaviors and the promotion of African American adolescents' healthy development. Different personological theories…

The present investigation considers the program outcomes of one community youth project, Leadership Excellence Inc., Oakland Freedom Schools. Oakland Freedom Schools are culturally relevant 6-week summer Language Arts enrichment programs for primarily inner-city African American youth aged 5 to 14 years. In this study, 79 African American youth…

This study explores the antecedents and consequences of race-related reasons for historically Black college and university (HBCU) choice. A total of 109 undergraduate students attending a historically Black university completed questionnaires assessing their race-related reasons for choosing the university and their intention to engage in…

African American adolescent boys underutilize mental health service due to stigma associated with depression. Gaining an increased understanding of how depressed, African American adolescent boys perceive their mental health needs and engage in help-seeking behaviors might play an essential role in efforts to improve their symptoms and access to…

In a recent study, Kellow and Jones apply the stereotype threat paradigm to a sample of African American students attending an urban high school. The purpose of this commentary is to provide a conceptual and methodological critique of Kellow and Jones's study. Implications for the role of Black psychologists in evaluating research on African…

This study continues the line of research on children's racial preferences that dates to Kenneth and Mamie Clark's classic research that revealed that Black children preferred White dolls and attributed more positive characteristics to White dolls than to Black dolls. In the current research, the authors examined Black and White preschool…

The author explored the meaning of the Black community according to a purposeful sample of 60 Black adults in the mid-Atlantic United States. Purposeful stratified sampling resulted in equal numbers of participants along the lines of locale (Brooklyn, New York; Wilmington, Delaware; and Washington, D.C.), gender, and generational affiliation…

The relations between racial socialization and color-blind racial beliefs (i.e., the denial, distortion, or minimization of racism) among 153 Black American college students, including 34 college student-parent dyads, were examined. Findings from open-ended data indicate that participants identified receiving both protective (i.e., messages about…